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HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI About 70 people demonstrated August 8 at the gate of the Navy's Trident submarine base in Bangor, Washington. Most had walked from the adjacent Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action to protest the continuing threat of nuclear war represented by the west coast home port for over 1,700 sea-based nuclear warheads. Twenty were counter demonstrators under the moniker Operation Support Our Troops, who greeted the arriving march from the opposite side of the highway, holding signs and waving U.S. flags. Thirteen of the anti-nuclear activists stepped into the roadway, some carrying large pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims, and others blocking the entryway with a large banner declaring "We Can All Live Without Trident." Kitsap County sheriff's deputies arrested the group and released them later at the station, with the assurance they would not be prosecuted. The county has been unable to get convictions against nonviolent activists arrested at Bangor the last three times they have tried. Juries and judges have found that people arrested at Bangor protests have the legal right to redress grievances under International and U.S. law with nonviolent direct action. For more information, contact Ground Zero, 16159 Clear Creek Road NW, Poulsbo, WA 98370, (360)779-4672, email: info@gzcenter.org web: www.gzcenter.org  The Nuclear Resister October 2004 |